Contributor

Thomas E. Perez

Former U.S. Secretary of Labor

Thomas E. Perez served as Secretary of Labor from July 23, 2013, to January 20, 2017.

Previously, he served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice and as the secretary of Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. From 2002-2006, Perez was a member of the Montgomery County Council. He was the first Latino ever elected to the council, and served as council president in 2005.

Perez also was a law professor for six years at the University of Maryland School of Law and was a part-time professor at the George Washington School of Public Health. He received a bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1983. In 1987 he received both a master's of public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School.